Original Version of "Survey, Noobs, Change"
Survey, Noobs, Change Survey Last time, I linked you to a survey asking you various questions about the 2014 - A Year of Change agenda. I got very interesting results. *'6 out of 9' people voted "Its okay, its updating things but its not super effective. " *'5 out of 9' people voted "Good (Most of the Administrators and Bureaucrats have enforced it)", however its worthy to point out that'' 2 out out of 8 ''people voted "Not So Good (only Sci has enforced it)" *'4 out of 6' people said the Wiki has "sorta" been a more peaceful, cooperative place since the beginning of 2014. 2 users voted No however. *'6 out of 8' users voted to update "Next Page", which I apologize guys, I meant Main Page, but as soon as someone voted, I couldn't fix it. *'4 out of 8' users answered, "How effective do you think 2014 - A Year of Change has been on helping new users? " by saying it was effective (each person voted on a different variation of effective). However,'' 3 more users'' said that its been harder to help new users. This is important. *'7 out of 9 '''users' answered that they are happy or okay with Featured Character. Noobs and Change 2 users believe that the Wiki has not been peaceful or cooperative. Now about that last sentence. I don't know who voted on that, and it could possibly be from a certain user, or maybe someone else there was conflict with. But even then... that's important. Its important when someone says "we are not making it peaceful to be on the wiki". Yes, he did do and say certain things that should not be allowed to happen. However, all of the drama that happened wasn't completely him. He didn't just join the wiki, and start causing trouble for no reason. For their to be a conflict, there has to be two sides. He was one side, and then we have the 2nd party, made up of users who know what they did or said to cause continual fighting between the two, resulting in an administrator decision. Drama only happens when two sides argue, bicker, and say/do things. So its not just his fault. Its the 2nd party's as well. When it was Summer 2012, things were great. We had a ton of new users joining, we had just stopped two-three wars, it was peaceful, everything is epic, we had great movies and OV coming out, everyone was just ... enjoyable to be around. Then, Fall 2012 came and a user came and ruined that. If you joined in 2012, maybe 2013, or before, you know who I'm talking about. When we had to deal with that sock problem, we realized that he was a troll, that he wasn't going to listen to us. So, our response was to toughen up. We promoted new chat moderators and administrators, brought down the hammer of justice, and dealt with the problem. But in the chaos, we turned on new users and we made them '''Public Enemy #1. Remember, "Hi, welcome to BTFF. Are you YJ?" That no longer occurs anymore, even after Spring 2013, when a second socking issue resulted in my promotion and the edit requirement, we still treated new users like they were trolls. We treated every new user as a possible threat until they proved themselves to not be a troll. We have to stop being so hard on these new users. Yes, there will be idiot noobs, who frustrate us. There''' will be''' annoying noobs, there will be even some troll noobs. But we need to not say "he's annoying me, he's a troll", like we have done for the past year (and you know that's exactly what we have done). There will be bad new users, but there are also good new users, and should be encouraging these users to get on chat, to become part of the community. We should encourage new users to join Fanon Con, to vote in Alien Fest and wiki affairs, to be more active. I get that eventually, we can't be all "kind, happy, sincere, etc." (which I received some criticism for when dealing with new users, especially one). But here's the thing. There was only 1 administrator trying to help them not get in trouble. As I recall, it seemed like everyone had the "Anti-Noob" bug going on. (cough:fighting, calling him all sorts of names, attacking him on his wall, telling him to fuq off, basically being told he can't even be on TEE because screw him, etccough). Maybe (and I'm saying MAYBE) if people hadn't done that, then the drama wouldn't have happened. It could've, but at least we would have actually tried (and not just started hating him the second he joined the wiki because he's a noob). The 2014 - A Year of Change agenda is NOT just wiki change, like updating pages, navigation, themes, etc. The 2014 - A Year of Change is also intended for USER Change. To become a better user on Wikia, to help and serve those who need it. To be a guide for those who are lost, to not annoy the hell out of others, to not be so angry but to use the happy emoticon more often. In the immortal words of Michael Jackson... Or if you want to adapt it for us, "if you want to make BTFF a better place, take a look at YOURSELF and make the CHANGE.". My point is, there are going to be bad noobs, and we're going to be annoyed, to be frustrated. Some of these noobs are gonna go bad, but all noobs are not created equal. There are good noobs (like how most of us were once), and we have to make it our responsibility, our duty to find these good noobs, to guide them. They may not get it in the very beginning month, or even the first two months. But eventually, they may get it. We have to stop giving up on every single new user, and treating them like they're worthless and hated. To prove my point about this, I'm going to draw from the very lifeblood of Wikia... the TOU. So... are you really going to break the TOU? Really?! ... hopefully we have the common sense to say "No". Start being a better person towards New Users. They're People. Just because you have the internet doesn't mean you can trashtalk someone and be a total jerk to them as well. '' Roles of Users with Rights One other thing I need to point out. I've looked at some other wikis lately. On the Avatar: The Last Airbender Wiki, they have an entire page for Administrators. On this page , the administrators are listed by their full username, if they are active or not, and most important of them all... what they do on the wiki. Here's what it looks like: ---- ---- Look at it. The administrators are all active, and they all do something. PSUAvatar14''' does maintenance. Thailog '''does images, themes, enforces policies. '''The 888th Avatar does styling, templates, messages, and uses a bot for tech questions. Water Spout '''is trying to have quality pages. And the other three are active admnistrators who basiclly do everything else. Each administrator does something important, each person has a duty towards its wiki. Another example is Ben 10 Planet. 10 Planet:Administrators Here, there is a list of administrators, activity, and their jobs. ---- ---- '''Blaziken: enforces rulers, handles vandalism, makes sure content is grammatically correct. Coke, makes users aware of issues, (here's the important part), ALWAYS experimenting or suggesting new features or updates. Superbike10 '''is a design administrator, helps out with CSS, and finds wiki news. '''Tenbennyson is a content editor, and a counter-vandalism administrator. All of these administrators do something for the wiki, trying to make it better. ---- A third example is the YJ Wiki. as seen here. ---- ---- Now this is us CURRENTLY: ---- Firstly, if you truly have done more this year, by all means please state "Um, I did This and THIS this year, so I've done my part" and I'll apologize in a reply below. Secondly, I do have to take into account that when I wrote this, it was late May, and its early June now, meaning everyone's busy with Final Exams. I understand why there is some inactivity, I'm not mad about that. I know that even for some, they may be having a good social life outside of the wiki. But still, its kind of sad to know that there are really only two out of 6 administrators (and/or bureaucrats) that are active. Now, back to my main point. Above is a list of administrators/crats, and what they do as an administrator. I feel like as administrators, we all should be doing something for the wiki besides being a rules enforcer, which we all are. I mean, isn't that one of the things an administrator is supposed to do? To make the community as good as possible? To keep a functioning, organized wiki out of chaos? We could have one administrator should be a New User adviser, another could help updated Featured Pages and do wiki-cleanup. A third administrator could try and solve user issues, and plan wiki events with me. A fourth administrator could think of new ways to promote good faith, and ways to make the wiki a better place to be on. I'm not saying that every administrator should have a certain job and can't do anything else because another administrator should be the one to do that, I'm saying that we should be doing things like they are. I feel like everyone should be doing something. Less time chattin', more time workin'. Wikis aren't social media, they're places to add content and build on. Role of None-Admins Now, I was going to rant here as well, however after I wrote my original end to the rant, its like you read my minds. *Jack proposed a Minimum Word Count rule being added to the Blog Policy (which I agree with). *Ulti proposed updating the Page Creation Portal, in which I let him start as his "2014 - Year of Change project". *Ahmad ... I forgot what he proposed lol. *Paper proposed a lot of things (most of which I have forgotten but I'm sure he'll remind me of them) So instead of being angry, I'll only use my last paragraph. Guys, I can keep making these blogs, and have you vote for like a week, and then a week afterwards change whatever I asked you to vote on. Then, our lives can keep going on, and we repeat. But if this keeps going on, the change isn't going to happen. You guys, as users of this wiki, have to start stepping up, and trying to start new things for 2014 - A Year of Change (of course, while asking me). You have to start trying wiki-cleanup contests, start trying to be the CHANGE. Because 1 person can't do it alone. Now, yes I can ask for help, but I shoulnd't have to. You should be able to try, propose/improve things, and make a difference. Many are focusing on their projects and themselves, always chatting, while not doing a single thing to improve their wiki for others. '''''BE THE CHANGE.